TNW Sites

CircleMe, the interest-based social network, wins AppCircus in London

Last month we reported that AppCircus was coming to London again. And last night, not only was The Next Web in attendance to see the developers pitch their products, we were on the panel of judges too.

Just to recap, AppCircus is a traveling showcase event that lets local developers demonstrate their apps, with the winners getting the chance to be nominated for the Mobile Premier Awards, held during Mobile World Congress in Barcelona in early 2013.

At the heart of it, CircleMe is about connecting with people who have the same interests as you. Adding other users to your network allows you to keep up with all of their interests.

The Runner Up: Shhmooze

Shhmooze is an Android and iOS app that helps you make “smart connections” for face-to-face meetings. Whilst the biggest benefit is to be had with those using the Shhmooze app itself, it also draws on information from the social sphere (Twitter, LinkedIn etc) to help try and connect you with relevant, like-minded people at the same networking event as you.

For example, say you’re looking to meet up with a Ruby On Rails developer at a conference, Shhmooze will mine key channels to try and hook you up with someone with that background.

Honorable mention: First Aid British Red Cross

The British Red Cross’s First Aid app seems like a really extensive first aid app to bring life-saving skills to one and all. Featuring animated content, interactive quizzes, and videos, this app already has hundreds of thousands of downloads under its belt to date.

Honorable mention: Eye Check, Boots Opticians

An app from one of the UK’s biggest high street brands, Boots Opticians’ Eye Check app seems very good. It does what it says on the tin – a virtual eye-test for anyone concerned about their vision, though this won’t replicate a real-life test.

Pilot Uni

It seems like a lot of work has gone into making Pilot Uni theiPad app for trainee pilots. It won’t single-handedly earn you your wings, but it looks like a really neat tool to accompany you throughout your course. It interactively walks you through all essential scenarios needed to fly a small aircraft.

Learn the Words: Animals

Learn the Words: Animals was developed under the educational concept of ‘learning by doing’, with the purpose to encouraging a creative play-time for kids.

Containing original illustrations designed in-house, the app includes two sets of animals, Savannah and Farm, starting with a total of 20 animals (and more to follow).

Movellas

Movellas is an online writing platform and social community platform for young readers and writers. Movellas works on iOS and Android, with thousands of free stories published already.

Curzon Memory app

Explore the Curzon Cinema (near Bristol, England) for memories, from snogging in the back row, to the bomb that exploded outside the front entrance in 1941.

A really nice, sentimental app and real potential to roll this out across the country to cover more cinemas.

Surrey Police

What’s that you say, the police force have their own app? Yes, in this case, Surrey Police (England) have their own app. Well, the police have their own version of the app, and the public have their’s. And the developer behind it says there’s scope to roll this out to other forces across the UK.

At the time of writing, 500 police officers & staff use the app for quick real-time updates, and they can even request information from the public regarding crimes.

Midsummer Night’s Dream

A Midsummer Night’s Dream is an app for children, which follows the plot of the original play closely but with a short rhyming text. Fully interactive, illustrations, lots of puzzles and riddles, bilingual English/Spanish, voice recording and more. A lot of work clearly went into re-imagining Shakespeare’s classic play for kids.